Melania Trump has brought style her husband can’t match

WASHINGTON DC – Melania Trump has done it again. The First Lady – the first spouse of a US president not to live full-time at the White House since Bess Truman opted to spend most of her husband’s administration living in Missouri – has shown up and performed her duty, travelling to the UK at her husband’s side.

A state visit to Britain and the chance to mingle with royalty was clearly not an opportunity to miss.

From the moment Melania arrived at Windsor, attention was drawn yet again to her hat. “Burgundy and eggplant” was the colouring, according to Vogue, which described it as “statement headgear”.

But what kind of statement was Melania trying to make with a hat that, in Vogue’s description, “recalled the face-eschewing and austere boater-style chapeau designed by Eric Javits that she wore to Donald Trump’s second inauguration”?

Back in January, the First Lady’s dark navy blue hat, made of wool and sporting a grosgrain white band, seemed designed partly to obscure her eyes at an event where she would otherwise come face-to-face with the Bidens and other prominent Democrats, with whom her husband enjoyed largely hostile relationships.

The Windsor hat appeared designed to be less threatening.

Sporting a wider brim, and shaped more like an upside-down flying saucer, it attracted fresh comparisons to some of the headgear regularly seen atop Lady Penelope in the classic children’s TV series “Thunderbirds”.

Like Melania, her Ladyship led a somewhat double life: a socialite living in a vast mansion with Parker, her always-loyal chauffeur, while she secretly worked as a special agent for Jeff Tracy’s International Rescue.

Of course, the First Lady’s mission to the UK this week was no secret: she was there to provide the style and élan that her husband cannot match, and to convey a smoother edge to his always-blunt administration.

The visit was likely a welcome break from New York, where Melania spends most of her time living – it is believed – at Trump Tower in order to be close to her son, Barron, currently studying at the NYU Stern School of Business in Manhattan.

She also travels regularly to Mar-a-Lago, an additional effort to avoid the daily shenanigans in Washington, after telling Fox News earlier this year that “my first priority is, you know, to be a mom”.

In May, it was widely reported that the First Lady had spent fewer than 14 of her husband’s first 108 days in the White House.

“The lights never seem to be on and the shutters stay shut” was The New York Times’ description of the corner of the residence traditionally assigned to the country’s first spouse.

In the intervening months, Melania has made only a handful of forays to Washington, and let her husband fly solo to Alaska last month, where he handed Russian President Vladimir Putin a letter from the First Lady about the plight of an estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children transported to Russia.

A few days later, President Volodymyr Zelensky presented Trump with a letter from Ukraine’s First Lady thanking Melania for her overture towards the Russian leader.

Despite the physical distance that often exists between them, the First Lady remains an important voice in her husband’s ear. In July, during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump indicated that his wife had been deeply critical of Russia’s escalating bombing raids on Ukraine.

“I go home, I tell the First Lady ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation’”, the President recounted. “She said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.’”

In a separate telling of the story, Trump claimed that Melania was the first person to inform him of a Russian attack on a Ukrainian nursing home, hours after Trump had spoken directly with Putin.

There is, however, no evidence that Melania’s concern about civilian casualties in Ukraine has resulted in a tougher stance towards Russia on the part of her husband.

There is also the sense that the First Lady has been side-lined during this visit, left to look at a doll’s house while her husband and Sir Keir Starmer spent the morning viewing the Sir Winston Churchill archives before holding a bilateral meeting.

Meanwhile, among the First Lady’s entourage in the UK this week is one figure for whom Britain is no stranger. Eagle-eyed observers spotted London-based celebrity hairdresser Lino Carbosiero among Melania’s team arriving at Windsor. He styled her hair during her husband’s first state visit to the UK, and was back at her side again on Wednesday.

Carbosiero’s selection perhaps underscores the Trumps’ determination to help boost at least one sector of the UK economy, while simultaneously connecting with the country’s elite. Carbosiero’s former clients include former Prime Minister David Cameron, who was so impressed by his work that he awarded him an MBE in 2014 for “services to hairdressing”.

Even so, there is no indication that Carbosiero was allowed anywhere near the US President’s own jealously-guarded coiffure. He was there for the First Lady.